Act V (26 page)

Chapter 22

Brice hit Glynnis’ number on his speed
dial. It went directly to voice mail. She had her phone off. “Addy,
will you wrap up here? I’ve got to get to Glynnis. She’s not
answering.” There was no need to explain to Addy why. He and Brice
knew that the autopsy would show this to be an accident but with
the killer’s implied threat on tape, they knew better. Sandra
Fitchwell had not driven into Stone Lake by accident. She had been
driven there by a sociopath who probably now knew Glynnis as the
psychic Fitchwell had twice made reference to on the
news.

He used the blue lights and made it to
the park in half the normal time. Rehearsal was just finishing up.
He felt his muscles relax when he spotted Glynnis, seated in a lawn
chair near the back of the audience area, holding a pencil,
clipboard and legal pad. He sat down on the ground beside her and
waited for the last act to end. She cut her eyes toward him with
more than a little suspicion, but said nothing. Brice patted her
leg so that she wouldn’t worry.

When the last lines were spoken and the
cast did their curtain call, she applauded loudly and told them to
be back in five minutes for notes, then turned to Brice as cast
members went in search of smoke breaks and bathrooms. “Okay, why
are you here in the middle of the afternoon?”

Brice tried to soften it by joking. “I
just had to get my Shakespeare fix. I was suffering from
withdrawal.”

She flattened her mouth and glowered,
waiting.

“
Okay, so much for trying to
lighten the mood.” He held her right hand in his. “Glynnis, they
found Sandra Fitchwell’s car in a pond today, not far from her
home. She was in it.”

“
Oh, Brice!”

“
Yeah.”

“
Brice, does this mean he
knows who I am?”

“
Probably. We won’t know for
sure until we catch him.”

“
Or until he kills me.”
Glynnis felt as if the heat of the day had just accumulated on her
body, pressing it downward, crushing her into the
ground.

“
Don’t talk like that.
Glynnis, is there somebody here you can trust?”

She looked at him, knowing he’d
appreciate the irony in her answer. “Yeah, Aaron.”

Brice grimaced. “Besides
him.”

“
I suppose. What do you
think I should do?”

“
I have to go back and
process this whole thing and I might not get out until eight or
nine. Can you have somebody follow you home and make sure you get
locked inside before they leave?”

“
Brice, I have to walk Carl
and I can’t go around hiding all the time.”

“
I’ll be there as soon as I
can. Just walk Carl in the yard and go back inside. Lock the
doors.”

She sighed. “Fine. Come over when you
get done. I’ll order in pizza or something.”

“
I’ll just bring food.” He
couldn’t stomach the thought of pizza under the circumstances. “In
the meantime, I’ll have a cruiser pass by your place just to check
things out, okay?”

He kissed her goodbye and left, passing
the tech crew returning from their break on his way to the car. He
acknowledged Aaron Shultz with a nod of the head but Shultz only
glared at him. Brice knew he was wondering what the detective on
his brother’s case was doing with his director. Let him find out on
his own.

*****

“
The medical examiner is
calling it an accident,” Addison said when Brice walked into the
station. “Her blood alcohol was point one two. She could have
swerved to miss a deer or something and driven into the
lake.”

“
She could have.” Brice
added. “But she didn’t. You know why she died.”

“
Oh yeah, our guy was
definitely out to get her. I’ll have them keep checking the car for
hair, prints, etc. That reminds me. While you were gone, another
report came in from police services on the Danning and Shultz crime
scenes. They’ve matched hair from both crime scenes. Looks like we
have a definite connection now, besides the letter that
is.”

“
I’m guessing they checked
for known sources and didn’t get a match on the hair.” Brice
noted.

“
You wouldn’t want it to be
that easy would you? At least we’ve got something solid to convict
with when we get him.”

Brice arranged for a car to cruise
Glynnis’ neighborhood and got down to the business of police
work.

Addison looked up from the list of
people he needed to interview. “Wonder why he didn’t make this one
look like a Shakespearean tragedy.”

Brice thought about it. “He was angry?
In a hurry? Wanted it to look like an accident?”

Addison continued the brainstorming.
“Maybe he didn’t want this one associated with his work of art, so
to speak. Maybe he just went for the information and then killed
her and used the most convenient accident he could come up
with.”

“
If you think about it,”
Brice added. “It takes a lot of planning to stage the Shakespeare
deaths and so far the victims have had some kind of background that
matches the characters from Shakespeare. Fitchwell didn’t. She just
had to die because he wanted something she had…Glynnis’
name.”

*****

After Celeste followed her home,
Glynnis walked Carl and then locked the door as promised. She had
three messages on her machine when she got back inside. One was
from her mother and she made a mental note to call her back soon.
One was from Dorsey, checking to see if she was okay. It seems he
was worried that his kiss had shaken her up. Glynnis laughed at
that but with very little humor. If he had only known what had
really upset her so badly.

The third was from a muffled voice she
didn’t know. This one caused her to slam her finger into the off
button as if the sound might invite infectious organisms into the
room. Without even listening to the whole thing, she knew who it
was. She braced herself and pressed the play button again.
“Glynnis, sweet Glynnis. It’s me, the man of your dreams.” Here he
gave a low, terrifying laugh at his own pun. “I hear you’re a fan
of my work, as I am of yours. You have been an inspiration. I feel
I should caution you however, dear. If you must dream about me,
then please keep it to yourself. It would break my heart to have to
put an end to such a promising career in theatre. Sweet soul, take
heed.”

Glynnis checked the caller ID. It
showed only “private number”. She wanted to go wash her hands. She
wanted to scrub every part of her until this evil sensation fell
away. She breathed deeply until she could get a hold on her panic.
She couldn’t let this maniac rule her life. She would call Brice.
No, Brice was working and had promised to come over later. If she
could stand it, she’d wait. She had to listen to it again. It was
the last thing she wanted to do. It made her stomach curdle to
think of it but she had to see if she could recognize the voice or
pick up a clue to who this was. She hit the play button again,
advancing the digital recording to the last message and made
herself listen carefully to every word.

*****

He smiled thinking of how terrified she
would be when she heard it. She would recoil from the machine, her
lovely face would flush. Perhaps she would break into tears.
Glynnis Nuckolls, the high and mighty director, brought down to a
shivering mass of nerves. He wondered how many people knew about
her special talent. He had known her for years, had spent hours at
a time with her and had never realized that she had such a very
freakish side to her. Could she identify him? He doubted it. But he
would take no chances.

*****

“
Brice, I just don’t know.”
Glynnis was sitting at her kitchen table, having run out of
answers, she felt like the proverbial camel and Brice was piling on
the last straw. “His voice was muffled, maybe even altered somehow.
I think I should recognize it but I don’t! So stop asking
me!”

“
I’m sorry, Glynn.” Brice
made circular motions on her back with his hand, trying to soothe
her. “I just can’t let this monster get to you so I’ve got to find
a way to stop him. Could it have been Timmons or
Shultz?”

“
I told you, it could have
been anybody. It wasn’t a normal voice. It sounded like maybe it
had been altered electronically.” Snuffles had begun to work their
way into her voice and she felt tears that she’d managed to hold
back so far, slide down her face. She swiped them away, hating that
he would see her cry again.

“
What about the last thing
he said, about taking heed. It sounded like a quote.”

“
I’m not sure. It’s a line
from Shakespeare, I think. I can’t remember which play. I’ll look
it up tomorrow.”

“
I wonder if he
intentionally called while you were away. Maybe he wanted to make
sure you had a recording, so he could what…be immortalized somehow?
What do you think he meant by saying he’s a fan of yours? Is this
somebody you know, besides Timmons and Shultz, I mean?”

“
BRICE!” She couldn’t stand
anymore. She stamped out of the room and into the bedroom, slamming
the door and locking it behind her. She could hear Carl scratching
on the other side of the door so she let him in and locked it
again. She walked around the perimeter of the room three times
before she finally threw herself down and let the tears
fly.

*****

Brice never could handle a crying
woman. He would much rather have her angry and throwing things.
That, he could deal with. But the tears…He decided to try something
a little different. He walked outside and found one of the red
geraniums she had growing in a pot on the front porch. He snapped
off a blossom and floated it in a glass bowl. Then he poured her a
tall glass of ice water, went to the bedroom door and knocked.
“Glynn?” No answer. “Glynn? You there? Are you awake?”

Glynnis heard him but she
didn’t want to answer. She was still angry, still nursing a really
strong grudge. It almost felt good. At least it was better than
feeling afraid. Then she heard a different noise. It sounded like
scratching at the door, like Carl’s scratching, but Carl was inside
with her.
What the heck?
She unlocked the door to find Brice holding a
flower in one hand and a glass of ice water in the other. “I
thought I heard…scratching.”

He shrugged. “It worked for Carl.” Then
he handed her the flower and pulled her with him to sit down on the
bed and cry out the rest of her tears.

*****

Brice insisted she stay at his place
for the next few nights. “I’d feel better if you were at my house.
That way he can’t find you as easily anyway.”

“
What about
Carl?”

“
Bring him. He can talk to
my gold fish.”

“
You have a gold
fish?”

“
I’ll buy one. Pack a
bag.”

*****

He was planning every facet now. He had
already fashioned the pike. The long sword wouldn’t work. It had to
be a broadsword this time. He wandered through his collection. Ah,
there it was. Steel blade with Scottish etchings depicting wolf
bane and on the powerful handle and guard, a wolf howling at the
full moon. He pulled it from its display case and caressed the
blade, feeling along its edge over and over; sharp, but not sharp
enough for what he had planned. He began to run the belt along the
blade. With every stroke he imagined the future.

Chapter 23

“
Glynnis! Wake up! You’re
dreaming again!” Brice gently shook her, and then not so gently
until she woke up. “Glynn, you okay?”

“
I’m alright.” She sat up
with an awkward jerky motion, slowly clearing the sleep from her
mind before she spoke. “Brice, it’s happening again. I don’t
remember any details, but he’s going to do it again.”

“
I’ll get you some water.”
He jumped out of the bed and came back with a plastic cup. It was
almost morning. “Can you remember anything at all?”

“
Just a feeling, lots of
blood, lots of real anger.”

“
Did you feel anger with the
others?”

“
Not like this. This one’s
different. He was detached, distant with the others.”

Brice set the cup on the nightstand.
“Maybe you should go back to sleep.”

“
Maybe.”

Brice settled her back into the covers
and curled his knees into the back of hers, placing his arm around
her and holding her close. “You’ve got a big couple of days coming
up. Go to sleep. I’ll be here.”

*****

Dress rehearsal went as well as could
be expected. Glynnis found a few minor problems here and there
which she addressed in her notes. There were a couple of missed
cues, but that was a good thing. It would give the actors an edge
for opening night. A perfect dress rehearsal usually made the cast
complacent. Now they would have obstacles to overcome. Opening
night would be better for it.

Brice had finished up the day at the
station and now sat ready to take Glynnis home. He had been clear
about his intent. He refused to let her drive home alone. It was
after nine o’clock. They’d eaten sandwiches during rehearsal and
she was ready to give it up for the evening. “Be here in costume by
six tomorrow, everybody.”